This story came about as a result of listening to the album by Emmelie De Forest, so the whole soundtrack sums up this story if you're curious.

Chapter One: The Capture

The fading sunlight shone through the tall grass where two young children played, their free laughter reaching my ears and making me smile. I tried to make out the boy's face but as always it was hidden from me. I recognised the girl's brown hair and hazel eyes as my own. I bent down, feeling the grass brush my legs now as it did then. Feeling undiluted happiness course through my veins. This was the rare dream I got, the one happy memory among the mess of bad shards. The children collapsed, both breathing hard. Occasional hiccups of laughter leaving their mouths and joining the sky, where the stars had began peaking their faces. Long grass and the scent of wild lavender surrounded them.

“We're always going to be best friends, right?” the girl asked, turning to stare at the boy. A sad smile drew his features for a second before he faced her.

“Of course. No matter what the adults say,” he replied with a grin. She returned it and stood up, starting a new round of tag.

I wanted to stay, enjoying the dream longer but someone in the waking world very impatiently shook me awake.

“Nicole, we have to go now!” Stan yelled at me, as the sound of distant explosions reached my ears and the ground shook. I stood up, pulling on clothes as fast as I could. Stan looked away, embarrassed, not that I cared either way. In the slums of the outer lands nothing was truly hidden.

“What's going on?” I asked, having to raise my voice as another explosion sounded, closer. The screams that followed sent shivers down my spine. I already knew what his answer was going to be, but I needed to hear the words to move.

“They tracked us down,” Stan said. I nodded and grabbed my crossbow, slinging it over my shoulder. I pulled on my boots, checking I still had a knife strapped to the inside of one beforehand. I felt another shadow cross mine and looked up to see Matt. His dirty blond hair had been messily tied up. Bags decorated his brown eyes as always.

"How many vampires?" I asked as I checked the number of bolts I had. We needed to take a trip through the tunnels and scavenge for more soon.

"A lot," Stan replied. I rolled my eyes at the lack of information and glanced at Matt.

"At least twenty, maybe more," He answered. My eyes grew wide for a second before giving a sharp nod. I left my room and entered the main hall. Civilians and soldiers were milling around. Looks of panic and confusion on their faces.

"I'll lead some men to the front line, you and some others lead the people away," Matt said, turning to face me. I opened my mouth to object but he shook his head. I clenched my fist, not wanted to leave him on his own. I unclenched and looked at the civilians.

“Let's go,” I shouted, loud enough for those in the areas around us would hear. I didn't have to check behind me to know I was being followed. The echoes of footsteps reached me as I headed into the tunnels. I ignored the feeling that told me that if they managed to find our hide-out, they could find the tunnel system too and kept marching forward. I checked behind me and saw a small girl hiding in the hem of her mothers skirt and felt my jaw tighten. I wouldn't let them get us. No human child would grow with their ways corrupting them.

“Nicole, the sound of fighting is growing closer,” Stan whispered in my ear, panicking. I glanced at him, he always was the first to cause worry in the colony.

“It's also above us Stan, we're fine-” My words were cut off by an explosion close enough to make my ears ring. I felt dust fall on me and realised it had been dead ahead. They had known about the tunnels.

“Run!” I screamed. Disconnected from my voice, hearing only my vocal chords move but not the word. It didn't matter, the others didn't need my instruction to get the hell away. We ran back and when there was enough distance I stopped with the other soldiers. Stan went with the others, for all his pluses, he was a coward.

“We've never gone against this many,” I heard one of the younger soldiers say as my hearing returned painfully, only in one ear though. That wasn't a good sign.

“Doesn't matter, we'll kill them all,” I said, loud enough for those approaching from ahead to hear. The chuckle told me they'd heard, the sound of it was sickening and sent chills down my spine. I pulled out my crossbow and got one in the heart, sending him straight to the ground. The laughing stopped, because I didn't use wood, I used silver-coated wood.

Author guidance

I'm currently editing this slowly on my computer. Since last writing for this I've come up with a separate storyline thats before the events of Hunter & Prey. I'm working on this story more at the moment so there's no continuity issues. Please bear with me! :) I will start posting the story before this one soonish.

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